Feb. 19, 2026

Lava Tubes on Venus, Elon Musk's Lunar Pivot & Titan's Mysterious Origins

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Show Notes
Transcript

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Lava Tubes on Venus, Elon Musk's New Target, and China's Lunar Ambitions
In this intriguing episode of Space Nuts, hosts Andrew Dunkley and Professor Fred Watson explore a variety of captivating topics that span our solar system. From the surprising discovery of lava tubes on Venus to Elon Musk's shifting focus from Mars to the Moon, this episode is packed with astronomical insights and updates on space exploration.
Episode Highlights:
- Lava Tubes on Venus: A new study suggests the existence of massive lava tubes on Venus, with evidence pointing to structures that could reach up to a kilometer wide. Andrew and Fred discuss the implications of this discovery and how it was derived from radar data collected by the Magellan spacecraft.
- Elon Musk's Change of Plans: The hosts delve into Elon Musk's evolving vision for space travel, as he shifts his focus from colonizing Mars to prioritizing lunar missions. They discuss the logistical challenges of Mars travel and the advantages of a Moon base.
- China's Reusable Booster Test: The China Manned Space Agency has successfully tested a reusable booster and a new spacecraft designed for lunar missions. Andrew and Fred analyze the significance of this achievement in the context of the current space race.
- Titan's Mysterious Past: The episode concludes with a look at Saturn's moon Titan, which may have formed from a collision between two moons. The hosts explore the implications of this theory and what it means for future exploration of Titan.

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Stay curious, keep looking up, and join us next time for more stellar insights and cosmic wonders. Until then, clear skies and happy stargazing.

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WEBVTT

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Hi there, thanks for joining us.

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This is Space Nuts where we talk astronomy and space science.

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My name is Andrew Dunkley. It's great to have your

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company yet again, and if you're a brand new listener,

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welcome along. Hope you enjoy it and hope you stick around.

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On this episode we will be focusing on a whole

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bunch of different types of stuff. The first one is

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a new paper that's been released suggesting that there are

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lava tubes on Venus. How do they know? We can't

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even see it. Well, they've got some evidence that they

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think points the finger at Venus's lava tubes. Elon Musk,

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who has for many years been saying I'm going to

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send people to Mars and they're going to live there,

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he's changed his mind. He's got a new target. We'll

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tell you about that. China has tested a reusable booster,

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and Saturn's moon Titan might have previously been two moons.

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We'll talk about all of that on this episode of

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Space Nuts fifteen seconds.

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Guidance is in channel ten nine Ignition squnch Space Nuts

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or three two one Space Nuts, and I reported Bill's

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good and.

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Joining us again in his spare time is Professor Fred

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Watson an astrophrom real large.

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Hello Fred, Hello Andrew, very good to see you. And

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I see that the launchers are going well behind your

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head there.

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Yes, yes, that's the photo I took inside the sphere

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in Las Vegas. We watched a presentation there about a

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year ago now, and one of the pictures was all

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these rockets taking off. It looked so nice. I took

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the photo and there they are on a bunch of them.

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That's humanity leaving Earth because we've made such a mess

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of it. They couldn't leave you anymore. That's what that represents.

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It's yeah, quite a lot. That was a really interesting story,

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and people people came back to visit Earth as tourists

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because and they had to wear spacesuits because you couldn't

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breathe here anymore.

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That's a really good segue into one of our stories today.

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So all Dull thought, yes.

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Well, let's get started, because our very first story involves

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a planet not unlike Earth at some time in its history,

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but it's suffering a runaway greenhouse effect and it is

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now unlivable. But we are trying so hard to learn

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as much as we can about Venus, and because it's

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shrouded in cloud and you can't see the surface. We

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have to use different techniques to see what's going on.

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And a new paper has just been published suggesting that

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there are lava tubes on this particular world. This should

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not come as a surprise because we know it's got

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so many volcanoes. We don't know if they're still active,

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but we know it's got It's got more than anywhere else, hasn't.

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It It does. You're absolutely right. If I remember rightly

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the numbers two thousand for Earth, it's something like fourteen hundred.

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I think that's from statistics I wrote down for a

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book once upon a time. But you're absolutely right. We

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simply don't know whether any of those two thousand volcanoes

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are actually still active. You and I have spoken about

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this before, and there's sort of circumstantial evidence that they

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might still be activity, or there might have been activity

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within the last million years, which sounds like a rather

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large window, except it may well be that, you know,

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people have thought that these things shut down three and

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a half billion years ago, So if there's been activity

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within the last million years, then it's still happening. That's

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the bottom line. But yeah, so you're quite right. In

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a body as volcanically not active perhaps, but with a

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past history of being active, you might expect to find

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lava tubes. And you and I have both walked through

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lava tubes in Hawaii and experience what they're like. And

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my recollection of those is that there are just a

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few meters in diameter, maybe three or four meters, perhaps five. Well,

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the news with this lava tube is that it is

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about a kilometer wide. Whilst really yeah, it's a big one.

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Where does the evidence come from? Because you're quite right,

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we cannot directly see the surface of Venus. Although I

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should give a shout out to my late friend and

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colleague David Allen, sadly passed away in nineteen ninety four.

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I think he is at the age of only forty seven.

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He actually observed for the first time the surface of

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Venus from a ground based telescope is the Anglo Australian

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telescope here in New South Wales, and he was using

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infrared radiation and he found evidence that he could actually

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penetrate to the surface. Now, there wasn't actually very much

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to see, and most of what we know about the

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surface of Venus has come from a spacecraft called Magellan,

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which was in orbits between nineteen ninety and nineteen ninety

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two around the planet. Venus is a NASA spacecraft and

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had something called synthetic aperture radar on board. Collected a

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huge trove of data on the surface of Venus. It's

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how we know there are volcanoes there. It's how we

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know that you know, there are rocky features, lots and

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lots of different what you might call igneous rock features.

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Those are the ones that are created by volcanoes. And

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it's now a re analysis of some of those data

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by a group at the Remote Sensing Laboratory at the

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University of Torrento in Italy. They have coordinated the re

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analysis of the data and basically have looked for evidence

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of what are called skylights. And a skylight is a

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hole in the roof of a lava tube. As you'd expect,

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kind of gives it away, and I'm sure I recall

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seeing skylights and lava tubes in Hawai as well. But

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what they've found is evidence not just for a roof collapse,

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which could be you know, any old cave under the

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surface whose roof has collapsed, but to show that there

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is there is a sort of a channel on either

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side of that collapsed roof. In other words, you know

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a sub surface cavity that is going backwards and forwards

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if I can put it that way, as well as

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just downwards. So what you're talking about is, yes, a

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lava tube. Lava tubes, as you and irobably both aware,

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are formed by flowing lava. But what happens is the

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lava sort of develops a crust as the lava flow

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is carried on, and that crust of solid lava basically

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insulates the hot lava that's flowing from its frozen surroundings

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and so our solidified surroundings, and so you've got the

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molten rock just keeps on moving, and then eventually when

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the eruption stops, the lava drains away, and you've got

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an empty tunnel that finds the lava tube. And so

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that's what we're talking about here. The roof is thought

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to be pretty deep. This all comes from these radar

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measurements at least one hundred and fifty meters thick, and

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so then you've got an empty void that goes down

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at least three hundred and seventy five meters And as

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I said, the width or the estimated diameter of this

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lava tube is a kilometer. Now that's very very big.

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And there's a very nice article about this on Space

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Daily and they say that is at the upper end

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of what scientists have suggested or observed for similar structures

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on the Moon and above. The typical size is expected

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on Earth or Mars. But the research team have commented

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that this is consistent with Venus having lava channels that

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are much larger and probably longer than those on the

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other planets or the other lava rich worlds like the

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Moon and the planet Mars. So really interesting stuff. Are

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we going to go and explore one of these? Well,

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that's a really good question. Given the temperature is what

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is it for four hundred and fifty celsius or the

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numas And yeah, there's much cooler in a lava tube.

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I reckon probably what might drop at least five degrees

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in the lava tube be virus.

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Yeah, there is.

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There's a suggestion from these researchers, and I think it's

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based on sort of circumstantial evidence that some of these

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conduits in the same region as the hall that they've

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found could run for Well, they suggest at least forty

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five kilometers, and yeah, that's quite quite remarkable. These are

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lava tubes, you know, the granddaddies of all lava tube.

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Yes, well, they're coming out of a volcano called nix Mons,

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which is a shield volcano like Olympus Mons. It's not

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as big, but it is rather huge. It's about three

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hundred and sixty two kilometers a cross is this particular volcano,

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according to the article I've just found. But nix Mon's

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named after a Greek goddess apparently.

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Of darkness, isn't it? Isn't it? I would be, yeah,

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a mount darkness or something.

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Yeah, yeah, I do have a recollection that nix has

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something to do with the underworld or something to that effect.

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But yeah, lava tubes on Venus, lava tubes on the Moon,

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lava tubes on Earth, lava tubes on Mars, they're everywhere.

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Fred, Well, yes, who gets excited about lava tubes when

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they're that common. Well, if you're on Venus, because they're

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so big, and you do.

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If you're going to sort of create a colony on

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Mars or even the Moon just to protect them from radiation.

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So yeah, these things were put there for a reason.

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See that's what it was.

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I'm sure somebody would say that.

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Yeah, maybe so, but yeah, great story and also good

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to see that some of that old dart at dating

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back over thirty years has been reanalyzed and we've been

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able to learn more from it. I'm loving that that's

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happening more and more these days. If you want to

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read about it, as Fred said, it's on Space Daily

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dot com, or you can read the paper proper from

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start to finish. It's only about five thousand pages at

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Nature Communications. Now, Fred, we talked about Mars, we might

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as well go straight to that planet because in the

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past we have talked about plans by a certain Elon

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Musk to send people to Mars and colonize.

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Now.

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I know how you feel about colonization of anything beyond Earth,

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but it looks like he's decided probably not time to

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consider that. Let's bite off something we can.

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Chew exactly, and not before time. So you know, Elon's

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Mars aspirations go back twenty years or more, I think,

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to write, to the beginning of SpaceX, and of course

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his main reason for developing the starship was to be

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able to transport large numbers of people to the planet Mars.

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And so he has successfully developed Starship and it is

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still under test where I think we're on test number

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eighteen's coming up, if I remember rightly, of the whole

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Starship package with the Falcon Super super Heavy and the

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Starship itself which is the upper stage. But that so

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that's it's not quite ready, but it's certainly getting there.

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But the penny has finally dropped. That is a lot

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harder to go to Mars than it is to the

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Moon exactly. And he has a deal with NASA. He's

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one of the two companies that is competing for the

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rights to land or to be the landing vehicle on

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the Moon for the Artemis three and beyond, in other words,

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the lunar program. The other company is Blue Origin with

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Jeff Bezos. They've got a lunar lander that looks a

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lot more sensible in any waste, and Starship Starship is

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a huge thing to land it on the Moon. If

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you get things wrong, you've got a big disaster on

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your hands. Anyway, that I think is what has focused

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Elon again on the Moon rather than Mars. Plus the

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fact that as he's pointed out, and he's sent out

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a text on this or a blog or social media thing, oh,

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which said we've just headed on X. It might have

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been X. Yes, it's funny you should say that anyway.

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He's suggesting that one of the reasons is that you

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can you can go to the Moon every ten days,

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you can only go to Mars every twenty six months.

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Plus you've got a six month journey there, whereas you

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can probably do it in three or four days for

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the Moon, And in some senses it gives you the

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same outcome. For the main reason that Elon wont to

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go to Mars, which was to provide a lifeboat for

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the inhabitants of planet Earth. Elon decided a long time ago,

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like the spacecraft behind you at the moment, that the

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Earth was doomed and that we needed somewhere else to

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go to ensure the survival of Homo sapiens. In many

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ways is a loadable aspiration. But then his next thought

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was going and trampling all over Mars. But I think

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just that, I mean, you and I have been talking

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about this for a long time, how difficult it is

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going to be to put humans on Mars, just because

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of the journey there at least six months. You can't

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come back until you've waited another six months or so

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until the Moon and sorry, the Earth and Mars are

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in the right position relative to one another, and then

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you've got a six month journey back. It's just such

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a difficult venture to imagine. Plus you've got a pretty

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hostile environment when you're there. The moon's hostile too, but

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it's a lot nearer, and you know, in an emergency,

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as we know from Apollo thirteen, you can get your

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astronauts back. Yes, so it's that's the It's like an epiphany,

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which I'm delighted to see, to be honest, Yeah, I'm

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into reality.

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I think it's a logical decision. The day will come

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when we do send people to Mars. But I think that's.

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True, that's right. It's a lot further off.

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Than Elon was hoping, and he's already passed a couple

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of the deadlights, so.

246
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Well, yeah, indeed, yes, it was going to be twenty

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twenty four when I started talking about this in twenty sixteen.

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Yes, and I think most people thought then that was

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probably you know, shooting too high or too.

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Do you remember Mars one the guy who conned everybody

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into training for a one way journey to Mars, which

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was going to use SpaceX vehicles. Elon was kind of

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in on that.

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Yeah, well, one day it will happen. Yes, I think

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we've got to get it all sorted out for the

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Moon first and exactly then we can springboard to Mars

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and who knows where beyond that. But you know, it's

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going to take time, and you've got to have the

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right equipment, and I don't think we've really got the

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gear to do a journey to Mars yet. There's so

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much about the human body you've got to take into account,

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not just the life support, but you've got to consider

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that you know, they're going to be up there for

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at least what eighteen months something like that.

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Yeah, it's a long time, going to be away for

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at least eight months.

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So your body is going to be affected by that,

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because the gravity that you enjoy and take for granted

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on Earth that keeps your body the way it is

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won't be there. All these things. Once they've perfected artificial

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gravity in space, then we might start seeing movement towards Mars. Yeah,

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we're not there yet. You can read that story at

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spacedaily dot com. This is Space Nuts with Andrew Dunkley

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and Professor Fred Watson. Let's take a little break from

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So check it out today in cogni dot com slash

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space nuts. We have been Anguality. They've here the lab

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00:19:36.960 --> 00:19:40.400
space Nuts. The next story brings us back to the

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space race, and of course we've been talking with much

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excitement about the prospect of Artemis two taking astronauts around

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the Moon, four of them, and bringing them back safely

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to Earth. They won't be landing or walking around on

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the surface in this case, but they are delayed, but

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getting closer to a lift off, we hope. In the meantime,

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there is another space agency that is very very keen

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to put people on the Moon, and that's the China

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Space Agency, the China Manned Space Agency, and they have

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just tested their own version of a reusable booster.

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Indeed they have in fact, they've done a double test Andrew,

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so they've already demonstrated that I think it's their long

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March ten rocket can be returned safely back to Earth.

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So the idea of reusable boosters goes back once again

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to Elon in twenty fifteen when the first Falcon returned

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safely to Earth to be reused. And now that's the

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normal way they do it, and so it will be

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the same with the Starship super Heavy booster. So it's

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a sort of one company has basically nailed it, but

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another number of other companies are doing the same or

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attempting the same thing. Blue Origin is one of them,

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Jeff Bezos's company. They've had a success as well. And

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the China Manned Space Agency has also tested reusable boosters

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and the latest test is a kind of double test,

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because not only have they tested the reusable booster. They

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have tested their new spacecraft, which is the one intended

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to take Taycher notes to the Moon. It's called Meng Jiao.

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If I remember rightly, that means something dream. I think.

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I can't remember what the exact translation is, but it's

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a lovely name. So Meng Jiao is the spacecraft that

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will take astronauts from Earth probably to lunar orbit, but

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then there'll be a separate landing vehicle, so they'll transfer

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to a lander which will take them down to the surface.

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That's a bit like the architecture that's been planned for

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Artemis three as far as I'm aware of, certainly ones

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beyond that that you're talking about having a separate lander

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in orbit around the Moon. So that's the test. But

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there's another element of this that was tested in this

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new demonstration, and that is the Meng spacecraft. Like most

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of the Crewde capsules that we see going into orbits,

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and certainly the Apollo capsule does this, as does the

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SpaceX Dragon capsule Crew Dragon. That is the launch abort system,

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in other words, the way of getting the capsule off

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the top of the rocket if something goes wrong and

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they demonstrated that by getting the Mengjao capsule to leave

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the long Long March ten rocket a fairly early stage

356
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in the flight, and it was just about the time

357
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of what we call max Q, where you've got maximum

358
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aerodynamic pressure on the vehicle. The abort motors that are

359
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fitted in the ME spacecraft pulled it away from the

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booster exactly as you would do if you were trying

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to escape from something dangerous going on with your booster rocket.

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And it all worked very very successfully, very interesting to read.

363
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I think the China Man Space Agency, their program is

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well on track. They have all along said they want

365
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to have Tiger notes on the Moon by twenty thirty,

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and it looks as though though well on the way

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to doing that. Here we are in twenty twenty six.

368
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Yeah, they're doing some impressive things, and they have become

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probably the Asia player next to the United States in

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space exploration. Russia seems to have fallen a little behind,

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but they've got their attention focused elsewhere at the moment.

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But I think it's good. It's healthy competition, and I

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think having a new race to the Moon situation is

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very exciting and I can't wait to see how it

375
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all pans out. And I did look up the translation

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for mengju or mengzhoo, and it's dream vessel or dream

377
00:24:34.559 --> 00:24:38.319
boat if you like. You could go either way. But yeah,

378
00:24:40.119 --> 00:24:42.799
they've come a long way since releasing the motor vehicle

379
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known as the Cherry, which didn't graze in Australia. But

380
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they're doing wonderful things now. In fact, I think it's

381
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a Chinese car company that owns MG now and as

382
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producing new models of the MG motor car, which is

383
00:25:01.240 --> 00:25:05.039
readily available in Australia, and they're selling a lot of them.

384
00:25:05.359 --> 00:25:08.960
They're quite a popular vehicle in this country. I don't

385
00:25:08.960 --> 00:25:12.039
know how they're going elsewhere. And of course they've got

386
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the Build Your Dreams electric vehicle that's making inroads around

387
00:25:17.519 --> 00:25:19.799
the world, and I first saw them when we're in

388
00:25:19.920 --> 00:25:23.880
China a couple of years ago. They're doing amazing things

389
00:25:23.920 --> 00:25:28.559
technologically on Earth and in space, and I look forward

390
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to seeing how far they take it. They might get

391
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the Mars before anyone else. Fred.

392
00:25:32.559 --> 00:25:37.559
Maybe that's not impossible, No, not at all. It's a

393
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program to be a blow. It's certainly going well.

394
00:25:41.960 --> 00:25:46.759
Okay, you can read all about that test run of

395
00:25:46.880 --> 00:25:50.640
the men's uice spacecraft and the reusable booster at ArsTechnica

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